Large Scale Central

LGB Sheep/Cattle Sound Car

Electronics Power and Sound
#1

I recently purchased an older LGB sound car. It came with a sheep sound module. Very nice sound by the way, just wish it would work differently.

I got it to play hooking up a 9 volt battery to the included clip as well as applying a different 9 volt battery to the power pickups (which usually plug into an LGB loco). But the sound does not loop. It plays and stops…even with the battery still connected to the loco plugs. Note I do not have track power. Only battery power on my layout.

Is there a way to continuously loop these sound modules? And is there a way to rewire the thing to run off of a single 9 volt battery?

I’m very experienced with the ITT Products sound modules and these are great in that they can loop and work off a single 9 volt battery. Just wishing the LGB sound modules can work the same way.

#2

Ours work off of the track voltage is how often the sounds runs, beside it also, runs more often as the track voltage raises. The 9 volt Batt. on our just keeps sound running for a few sec. when the trains stops.

Maybe able to hook up wires off of your Eng. motor to change the voltage to the LGB Cattle car. They seem to need the difference voltage for difference sounds.

We have two other Cattle cars that has the ITT cards in them, also. We used a home made shaker switch to activate the ITT to do one or more loop or as train run down the tracks.

Hope this kind of helps…

#3

Hmmm so it needs varying voltage to keep it going? Odd that a 9 volt battery constant supply (acting as the locomotive power feed to the car) wouldn’t keep it going unless mine is slightly broken as it was a used car.

It’s odder that even with a “track power source” (mine being a 9 volt batt for testing), the car still needs the other 9 volt battery plugged in to work.

#4

Maybe the varying voltage is what triggers the board to sound off. That would be one way it could tell if it was in motion.

#5

Try powering the module with a 12 volt Li-on battery. Instead of hooking the power leads to the lighting socket on the loco, hook them to the 12 volt battery. These batteries are inexpensive from China on Ebay. Each battery comes with a charger. I’ve had great success using them to power my animations.

#6

Not odd having a battery backup to a track powered car, old electronics would reset with the least interruption in power from the track.

These cars did not have really good power pickup as opposed to a loco with multiple pickup wheels.

I’d try Noel’s suggestion for a test.

Greg

#7

I would suspect that the 9 volt battery hooked up for the track power input is not fresh and the voltage drops when connected, thus the 9 volt backup battery allows 1 play. A fresh 9 volt battery may play longer for awhile.

Duracell rates the 9 volt battery at 500ma.

https://www.google.com/search?q=9+volt+battery+spec&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

#8

Not sure why the 12 volt test batt would make much difference from the 9 volt test batt I’m using. And the 9 volt (Duracell) was fresh out of a package.

So maybe the sound unit I have isn’t working right.

Oh and Greg, the car I have wasn’t upgraded to tack power (no pickups added). And I don’t have track power on my layout. So hoping an on board battery would suffice to play the sound.

**Good old Google…**found my answer:

“The car was intended to get it’s trigger signal voltage from the locomotive tender. You will need two 9 Volt batteries – one inside the car, as you already know about, and one connected to the input terminals on front of the car. IIRC, the sound only cycles for about 30 seconds or so when it is triggered with a battery, though, because it was intended to be connected to the locomotive and receive some type of pulses from it.”

From: http://cs.trains.com/grw/f/91/t/151698.aspx

Explains exactly what I’m seeing.

Wish there was a way to rewire/redo some of the circuit board solder joints to work as a sound loop via 1 battery.

I suppose I could make the car track powered, but the problem with that is I have a constant 12 volt (AC!!!) supply going through my rails for some Malibu style lighting. I’m using the rails as wires essentially. But this is not track power for locos, etc… And AC might be an issue.

Oh well, I guess it is what it is.

#9

I think that you could essentually do it the same way ITT does it.

Use the 9 volt back-up battery and wire the 12 volt battery (or maybe even another 9 volt) to it through a mercury tilt switch or equivelent. When the switch is jostled, it will break the 12/9 volt source and the sound should start anew.

#10

That’s a good idea Todd. I might try that.

This unfortunately wouldn’t work though when the car is stationary. And stationary is probably where the car will be most of the time.

Like these cars in parked at the cattle/sheep loading area:

#11

A typical 9 volt battery doesn’t seem to have enough of what it takes to power the sound continuously. That is why I suggested a 12 volt battery. I did forget to mention that the 12 volt battery I was speaking of in my previous post should be a Li-on battery.

#12

Dan Padova said:

A typical 9 volt battery doesn’t seem to have enough of what it takes to power the sound continuously. That is why I suggested a 12 volt battery. I did forget to mention that the 12 volt battery I was speaking of in my previous post should be a Li-on battery.

Thanks for the info. I have an extra 12 volt Li-on (well I think it is 11. something) that I plan to use for interior lighting in some passenger cars. So I’ll test that and see if it continues to power the sheep sound.

#13

Matt Doti said:

Dan Padova said:

A typical 9 volt battery doesn’t seem to have enough of what it takes to power the sound continuously. That is why I suggested a 12 volt battery. I did forget to mention that the 12 volt battery I was speaking of in my previous post should be a Li-on battery.

Thanks for the info. I have an extra 12 volt Li-on (well I think it is 11. something) that I plan to use for interior lighting in some passenger cars. So I’ll test that and see if it continues to power the sheep sound.

Matt, don’t forget to connect the Li-on battery to the “Track power” terminals, not the 9 volt battery terminals.

#14

Matt Doti said:

That’s a good idea Todd. I might try that.

This unfortunately wouldn’t work though when the car is stationary. And stationary is probably where the car will be most of the time.

Like these cars in parked at the cattle/sheep loading area:

You could do it using a 555 chip set up in “flip/flop” mode, the same as a reverser unit. The parts would be minimal because you already have regulated dc power.

Would only require the 555 chip, a capacitor, a relay, a couple resistors, and board to mount them on.

#15

Could you hook up some sort of timer to re trigger the sound periodically? I would think you could,rig it to operate off one 9v battery with some fiddling.

#16

I do not understand why every one thinks the 500ma 9 volt battery will work long term (remember you are driving a speaker with current!!). And the cable going to the engine is not a start signal for these sound cars, it is the power source. Note that LGB does state the battery is not needed for DCC systems as the sound unit was designed to primarily run from track power and the connector for the 9 volt battery was for intermittent power interruptions.

Also, there are 2 types of car type sound units, the later ones have DCC control. Red chicken dance is DC, blue Chicken dance is DCC.

European coke is DC, American coke is DCC.

My cars running on DCC do not have the 9 volt batteries installed, but they do have power pickups and are tied to either an engine or another car for better power pickups.

So, Battery people would be best off to have a robust rechargable power source of more than an amp and at least 9 volts. Anything over 12 volts would just be wasted heat. Exception would be the steam and diesel sound cars which need a voltage change for the sounds.

#17

My point was that it always was a “track power” car, i.e. got power from the track, in this case from the track, through the loco and out the back connector, but still track power, battery was backup as Dan has stated several times.

Typically these are 400 milliamp hours up to about 550 for duracells… throwaway batteries. Rechargable ones are WAY lower in amp hours.

So I concur with Dan, you need a much larger battery if you are running this old school sound system (clearly not class D efficient).

Greg

Matt Doti said:

Not sure why the 12 volt test batt would make much difference from the 9 volt test batt I’m using. And the 9 volt (Duracell) was fresh out of a package.

So maybe the sound unit I have isn’t working right.

Oh and Greg, the car I have wasn’t upgraded to tack power (no pickups added). And I don’t have track power on my layout. So hoping an on board battery would suffice to play the sound.

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